Lone Punch To Wife's Face Lands OC Thug Husband in Prison

At the age of 36 in September 2009, Orange County's Travis Theodore Lassiter had already hit key milestones.

Lassiter--a serial wife beater prone to hissy fits--had been sent to prison a whopping four times and knew that if he committed another felony under California's Three Strikes Law he'd return to a nasty prison cell for a lengthy stay.

But he just couldn't help himself.

After drinking booze in Fountain Valley near Mile Square Park, Lassiter punched his wife in the face.

The blow put the woman on the sidewalk and caused profuse bleeding from the left side of her face.

Classy.

At his 2010 jury trial, he denied striking his wife but said he might have pushed her down. Jurors didn't buy it and convicted him. Orange County Superior Court Judge David A. Thompson then handed him a ticket back to prison.

Lassiter appealed, claiming that his punch did not technically qualify as causing great bodily harm. The point wasn't moot. The jury's acceptance of that enhancement meant a more severe punishment.

This week, a California Court of Appeal based in Santa Ana rejected his complaint. The justices noted that the woman's wound had been quite painful and serious enough that it required doctors to stitch it closed, facts that reasonably led the jury to qualify it as a great bodily injury.

Upshot: Lassiter will continue to serve his 11-year prison sentence at the California Correctional Institution at Tahechapi.

R. Scott Moxley’s award-winning investigative journalism has touched nerves for two decades. An angry congressman threatened to break Moxley’s knee caps. A dirty sheriff promised his critical reporting was irrelevant and then landed in prison. Corporate crooks won’t take his calls. Murderous gangsters mad-dogged him in court. The U.S. House of Representatives debated his work. Pusillanimous cops have left hostile messages using fake names. Federal prosecutors credited his stories for the arrest of a doctor who sold fake medicine to dying patients. And a frantic state legislator literally caught sleeping with lobbyists sprinted down state capital hallways to evade his questions in Sacramento. Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club and been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists.